Guidelines for using roles in Final Cut Pro

Keep the following in mind when using roles:

Every clip component must have an assigned subrole (clips with audio and video always have one audio and one video role). Still images are assigned the Video role by default, but you can create a custom role for still images. You can also create caption roles—for example, for subtitles and closed captions—with subroles for different language versions.
Note: A role is a category; each role contains at least one subrole. What actually happens when a role is assigned to a clip is that a subrole within the role is assigned to a component within the clip.
Video roles can’t be assigned to audio-only clips, and audio roles can’t be assigned to video-only clips.
Roles (specifically, subroles) can be assigned to audio or video components of a clip but can’t be assigned to a clip range, or portion of a clip.
You can assign different roles to each instance of a standard clip. For example, if you add a clip from the browser to the timeline, copy clips between events, or copy clips within the timeline, each of these clip instances is independent of the others.
Custom roles and subroles are specific to a library. This means that a custom role that you create for one library is not automatically available in another library. However, if you copy or move clips between libraries, any custom roles and subroles assigned to those clips are also available in the destination library.
Changing a role within a compound clip or multicam clip affects every instance of that clip throughout the library.
When you import clips, Final Cut Pro automatically assigns unique subroles to each audio component in a clip. You can manually assign the same subrole to multiple components in a clip, but this will cause those components to be consolidated (in the same subrole) if you place the clip inside a compound clip, multicam clip, or synced clip.

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Final Cut Pro User Guide

Guidelines for using roles in Final Cut Pro